“Woah, woah, wait,” Rio gasped, grabbing Miles’ shoulder and directing him toward a chair. The TV was blaring with the news report of Wilson Fisk’s arrest, and Rio could hear the panicked shouts of almost every language she could think of outside as people ran around trying to find other people or pets after the earthquakes.
Miles hissed when a loud honk from outside tore through the house and Rio frowned in concern. “What’s wrong, papá ? Are you hurt?” She pushed him down gently, concern skyrocketing when the boy twisted in the seat and wrapped his arms around his ribs. “Are you sure you didn’t get hurt? Vamos, tell me.”
Miles shook his head frantically, a slightly nervous giggle escaping his lips and he could tell by his mother’s wide eyes that it did nothing to calm her down. “No, no, Mami, I’m fine. Lo prometo …It’s just…” He scrambled for an excuse, eyes darting about the kitchen and determinedly refusing to meet his mamá’s eyes.
“I just have a cold!”
“A…cold?” Rio said slowly, looking over her son with an incredulous gaze. Unfocused eyes, tense shoulders, and an obvious bullshit excuse. Miles was definitely lying about something…and probably had a mild concussion too.
“Let me see it.” She demanded, leaving the kitchen to grab her med kit from the hallway closet. The case was stuffed with professional medical supplies straight from the hospital she worked at and Jeff had jokingly told her to open up her own clinic when he saw her organizing it one day.
Miles was still sitting in his odd slanted position when she got back and she raised a brow at him. “Miles.”
“Huh…yes, mami?”
“Your ribs, let me see.”
“It’s just a tiny cold ma-” This kid.
“Now.”
The teen stood up, movement stiff and jerky as he pulled off the hoodie he came home in. Jeff had dropped him off after navigating the concerned flock of parents at Visions and immediately had to go back to work to sort out the whole Kingpin mess. She wondered how she had missed the lack of Miles’ clumsy movements and laid-back posture when she welcomed the boy back home.
And now she understood why.
Miles lifted the oversized hoodie over his head and closed his eyes as his mamá let out a horrified curse. Kingpin was strong , and just because Miles was 100x stronger and now had a healing factor did not mean he was exempt from getting injured or feeling pain. He had seen the damage done to his body when he had taken off the suit in his dorm room. The cuts and bleeding had healed on his swing back Visions but the bruises would take time.
“ Que te paso, mijo !?” Rio questioned, rushing to the fridge and yanking the freezer door open before taking out a large ice pack.
“Nothing, nothing-”
“Miles, did you get hit by something? I thought you said you were at school when the earthquakes were happening. Did something fall on you?” Rio fussed, herding Miles toward the couch and making him lie down.
“Mami, please! It’s nothing.” Miles insisted, hissing when she placed the towel-wrapped ice pack on his sore chest.
“Be honest, Miles, your ribs are seriously bruised. Dios, is someone at school bothering you?”
The volume of her voice, the honking outside, the surprisingly rough texture of the towel, and the pain finally pushed him over the edge. He could smell her worry as his eyes clouded with tears.
Oh god, I can smell emotions now He thought hysterically as he tried to prop himself up on one arm and wipe his eyes with the other. He only succeeded in almost giving himself a black eye and flopping back onto the couch in a graceless motion. “Too loud.” He pushed out, voice thick with tears, and when his mamá did not answer he turned his head to find empty space. Shutting his eyes with a pained gasp, he didn’t try to stop the tears from sliding down his face.
Now that the other Spiders were gone, he felt like everything that happened in the last two days was some sick hallucination. He had watched people die right in front of him. He had woken up with powers . And he met people from different universes. But the buzzing presence of his senses at the back of his neck told him that this was reality. He was Spider-Man and his parents could never know.
Gentle hands slipped something over his head and when he reached up to touch the item he could feel SONY on both sides. His headphones now covering his ears, Miles could barely hear the honking and shouting from outside. Now there was just gentle breathing, a faint antiseptic smell, and the feeling of his mamá’s fingers scratching his scalp.
“Mijo…I don’t know what’s going on with you. You’ve just been different, and of course, I want you to change and grow however you want, but mierda. It’s scary watching you cry and be in pain. And now with,” She cut herself off when her breath hitched, “with everything going on with school, and your uncle, and these disagreements you have with your dad…I’m just worried.”
“I’m sorry,” he said desperately, “Mami, I’m so sorry. I’ll go to Visions and stop arguing with Dad, but I promised him-”
He stopped speaking abruptly, closing his eyes and trying to latch onto the sound of her heartbeat so that he wouldn’t hear the cracks of Peter Parker’s caved-in ribs.
“I know you miss your Uncle, baby, I know. You don’t have to apologize and if you really want to go to Brooklyn Middle then that’s ok too-”
A sob burst from his lips. She thought he was talking about Uncle Aaron. The urge to tell her where he had been that night when Spider-Man fell to Kingpin was overwhelming, but he bit his tongue and finally pulled himself up. She watched him with pain-filled eyes and helped keep the ice pack flush against his bruised skin.
“It’s ok, Mami. I’ll keep going to Visions.”
“Yeah?”
“Uh-huh,” he nodded, shifting forward and letting her pull him into a hug, “y’know it really ain’t that bad.” She snorted softly, removing the hand massaging Miles’ scalp from his ‘fro and cupping his cheek with it. “That wasn’t what you were saying when school started.”
“Yeah, well I made friends. Did you know my roommate talks?”
She decided to brush the sight of purple bruises adorning her son’s chest and ribs to the back of her mind and let herself fall into Miles’ familiar dry wit. He was still here with her, brushing away tears and losing some tension, but it was more preferred to an absent or dead Miles. And while she had a feeling that this promise Miles was crying about wasn’t made to his uncle she knew that Miles would do his damn best to come back home to her and Jeff. All she could pray for was that he wasn’t risking his life.
Tugging Miles' head down to her lap, she caught a shot of Wilson Fisk’s mugshot taking up the TV and sneered at the man’s scuffed face. Jeff had told her all about the new Spider-Man over the phone and she couldn’t be more thankful to the vigilante for stopping the source of the earthquakes before Miles suffered worse injuries. The hospital would be at max capacity for a while but her son and husband weren’t in one of her floor beds and that’s all she wanted to know.
“I love you, cariño .”
Miles stopped his waterfall of school stories and shifted his head to look at her, eyes warm and alive, before replying, “I love you too.”